Gas-fired burner unit with gang type air damper shutter



March 17,4970 R. J. VALEIS 3,501,258

GAS-FIRED BURNER UNIT WITH GANG TYPE AIR DAMPER SHUTTER Filed May 13,1968 ENTOR Rlchur .Vules United States Patent O 3,501,258 GAS-FIREDBURNER UNIT WITH GANG TYPE AIR DAMPER SHU'ITER Richard J. Vales, Elyria,Ohio, assignor to Luxaire, Inc., Elyria, Ohio, a corporation of DelawareFiled May 13, 1968, Ser. No. 728,542 Int. Cl. F23d 13/40 U.S. Cl.431-354 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATEDAPPLICATIONS So far as is known, this invention is not related to anypending patent applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Gas-fired horizontal furnaces are well knownand they may employ a plurality of elongated burner tubes supported on aframe that is removably positioned within the furnace heat exchanger. Itis desirable to simplify the construction of the burner unit byproviding a single gang air shutter or damper adjustment for all of theburner tubes in an arrangement that may be easily adjusted withoutremoving the burner frame from the furnace or heat exchanger.

PRIOR ART A removable burner tray for a horizontal furnace is shown byUnited States Patent 3,314,610 classified in class 239 subclass 416.5and a gang air shutter arrangement is shown in each of the U.S. Patents1,862,182 and 2,842,076 believed to be classified in class 110 subclass72. None of the prior patents mentioned disclose the simplified gang airshutter or damper of the present invention as will be described in moredetail.

SUMMARY In accordance with the present invention, each of the pluralityof elongated burner tubes is supported on a common frame and each tubeis provided with a transverse primary air or damper opening in the sideof the tube near the end at which the gaseous fuel is injected. A singletransverse shutter or damper member is simultaneously movable into theprimary air openings of all of the burner tubes. In its preferred form,the damper shutter is a simple channel member pivotally mounted on theframework in bridging relation to the burner tubes and is sized tosubstantially close the primary air openings of the burner tubes when itis fully moved thereinto. The damper shutter is movable out of theburner tube primary air openings to simultaneously increase the flow ofair into all of the burner tubes by a single ganged adjustment.

Further objects, features and the attendant advantages of the inventionwill be apparent with reference to the following specification anddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary perspectiveelevational view of one end of the burner unit of the invention showinga plurality of burner tubes with primary air damper openings near theend of the burner tubes where the gaseous fuel is injected and showingthe single movable air damper or shutter partially closing all of theprimary DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to thedrawing, it is desired to point out that for the sake of simplifying thedrawings, the complete framework for supporting a plurality of burnertubes in a removable tray is not shown, it being understood that suchframework may take various form familiar to those skilled in the art andgenerally may consist of a rectangular framework including side membersand cross or end members. A portion of one end of a side frame member isshown at 10 and a triangular gusset or bracket 11 is secured thereto towhich may be fastened a cross member 12 which may be a gas manifold tubeinto which the fuel to be burned is supplied through the gas pipe 13.The manifold tube 12 is secured to the gusset 11 by means of a U-clamp14 and a similar supporting arrangement is provided for the far end ofthe manifold tube 12 to the parallel side frame member at the other endof the burner tray (not shown). A plurality of elongated burner tubessuch as those shown at 15, 16 and 17 are supported at one end by nipplestructures such as the nipple shown at 18 for the burner tube 15extending into the cross member manifold 12. The far ends of each burnertube are supported on the burner frame in any suitable manner (notshown) and are entirely closed by end walls. It will be noted that eachof the burner tubes 15-17 is closed at the ends 20-22 so that onlygaseous fuel to be burned can be admitted thereto from the manifold 12through the respective nipples such as the nipple 18.

According to the invention each burner tube is provided with atransversely positioned primary air opening near the respective end ofeach tube where the fuel to be burned is admitted through the respectiveinjection nozzles such as the nozzle 18. In actual practice the primaryair openings 25-27 may be easily formed by cutting a transverse slot asshown. Along the upper length of each elongated bumer tube arepositioned a plurality of burner openings such as the burner opening 30at which the mixture of air and gas within each burner tube is burned.In accordance with the invention, in order to provide a simultaneousgang adjustment of the amount of air passed through the primary airopenings 2527, a single movable shutter or damper member 40 is movablymounted on the burner unit frame member at the respective gussetbrackets such as the bracket 11. For this purpose, each end of theshutter 40 is formed with a bearing surface such as the projection 41journaled in a suitable aperture such as the aperture 42 of the bracket11. Obviously many other ways of pivotally supporting the single gangedair shutter 40 on the burner unit frame in a manner to be simultaneouslymovable into the respective primary air openings 2527 of the burnertubes 1517 may be employed without departing from the spirit of theinvention. However, it will be noted that the single ganged air shutter40 is movably positioned in bridging relation to all of the plurality ofburner tubes 15-17 which are preferably positioned in a generallyparallel side-by-side relationship to each other.

As more clearly shown by FIG. 3 of the drawing the ganged air shutter ordamper member 40 may be simply comprised of a channel member dimensionedto have a width somewhat less than the width of the transverse slots25-27 and to substantially close the transverse slots or primary airopenings when the ganged shutter member 40 is moved to approximately theposition shown by FIG. 2 of the drawing and to substantially completelyopen the primary air openings when in the position shown by FIG. 3 ofthe drawing. Various arrangements may be provided to conveniently securethe gang shutter 40 in the desired adjusted position and one simplearrangement for doing so is comprised of the arcuate slot 50 formed inthe bracket member 11 through which a set screw 51 may be threaded intothe threaded opening 52 of the shutter 40. A similar locking arrangement(not shown), may be provided at the opposite end of the shutter 40although only one such locking arrangement is necessary.

Various modifications will occur to those skilled in the art, it beingunderstood that the invention is in the provision of transverse openingsin the burner tubes into which a single shutter or damper member ismovable to provide for the simultaneous gang adjustment of the fuel andair mixture for each of the burner tubes.

I claim as my invention:

1. A gas-fired burner unit comprising a plurality of elongate burnertubes through which is passed a com bustible mixture of fuel gas and airto be burned, each of said tubes being closed at both ends and having aplurality of burner openings along its length, means to inject fuel gasinto each tube at one end, each tube having a primary air damper openingin its side near the end at which the fuel gas is injected, and a singlepivotal damper member adapted to be simultaneously movable into and outof each of said damper openings to simultaneously adjust the fuel gasand air mixture in each of the burner tubes. I

2. The invention of claim 1 in which each of said damper openings isformed as a slot across the tube and said damper member is an elongatedchannel having a channel width somewhat less than the width of eachslot,

said channel being pivotally mounted in bridging relation toand movableinto the slots of the burner tubes.

3. The invention of claim 2 in which said plurality of burner tubes aresupported on a single frame unit having opposed side members, a cornerbracket at each end of said side members adjacent the ends of the burnertubes having the transverse slots, said damper channel having anextension at each end pivotally supported on the respective cornerbracket, and at least one corner bracket having an ar cuate slot throughwhich is extended a locking screw into a respective end of the damperchannel. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,387,827 8/1921 Bacon.

1,517,394 12/1924 Bengtson. 1,844,187 2/1932 Smith.

H. B. RAMEY, Assistant Examiner

